Astros’ trade for Lowrie pays dividends as he emerges as top shortstop

On another level, it cuts to the heart of why Astros shortstop Jed Lowrie is, in fact, an Astros shortstop instead of a Boston Red Sox mainstay. It cuts to why, at age 28, Lowrie is still trying to establish himself as an everyday major league shortstop.

Instead of taking the express route to stardom, Lowrie has been star-crossed.

Lowrie has given the Astros nearly a fifth of a season’s glimpse of what he can do when the moon and stars aren’t aligning against him, carrying a .301/.387/.473 batting line into a three-game series in Pittsburgh that begins Friday. He entered Thursday ranked fourth among major league shortstops in slugging and fifth in on-base percentage.

“First of all,” Lowrie said, “I’ve been healthy.”

The ability of Lowrie was evident enough for the Red Sox to spend a first-round draft choice on him in 2005. He was in the majors by 2008, though staying on the active roster has proved to be more difficult than actually hitting or fielding. Mostly because of an assortment of injuries and maladies, Lowrie has yet to play in 90 games or accumulate 310 at-bats in a big league season.

A wrist injury from a pitched ball cost him basically an entire year, a bout with mononucleosis sabotaged another season, and he was off to a flying start in 2011 before getting into a collision with outfielder Carl Crawford that caused a lingering shoulder injury.

One minor mishap

Acquired in the December trade that sent reliever Mark Melancon to the Red Sox, Lowrie had to delay his Astros debut six games because of a freakish thumb injury suffered diving back to second base on a pickoff play.

“In my eyes, the injuries I’ve had are completely out of my control,” Lowrie said. “They’re injuries that are traumatic injuries that don’t happen on a baseball field very often.

Unfortunately, I’ve had a handful of them — more than my fair share at this point. To characterize me as injury-prone I think is unfair, but the reality is I’ve missed a lot of games because of those injuries. I feel like I’ve taken really good care of my body and come back from those injuries strong because of that.”

That’s the way Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow saw it, which is why his first major league trade upon taking control of the organization’s baseball operations was to acquire Lowrie to fill the shortstop void left when Clint Barmes signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent.

Luhnow had been a Lowrie advocate as a member of the Cardinals front office leading into the 2005 draft. The debate then had raged among scouts around baseball whether the switch-hitting Lowrie had enough range to play shortstop — his position at Stanford — or would have to change positions.

Luhnow was in the keep-Lowrie-at-shortstop camp then and clearly still is.

“I always knew that injuries were the thing that kept him from fulfilling his potential,” Luhnow said. “And if you look at his injuries, they all seem to be sort of freak, non-recurring injuries. That’s why we jumped at the opportunity to get him in the organization, figuring if he plays a healthy season he’s going to put up not only a good batting average (but) a good on-base percentage, a good slugging percentage, and be at least an average defensive shortstop. He’s doing exactly what I expected him to do.”

By FanGraphs’ Runs Above Replacement and Wins Above Replacement measures, Lowrie has been the 18th-most productive position player in the majors — third among shortstops — this season. FanGraphs ranks Lowrie, who committed his first two errors of the season on Wednesday, as the 11th most valuable defensive player in the majors to date and tops among shortstops (13.4 runs better than the average at that position).

“A lot of people questioned whether I can really play shortstop,” Lowrie said. “I’ve really worked on my reaction time and my footwork. I feel like I can put myself in the position to make plays on a consistent basis because of my footwork, and my reaction has gotten better.”

Practice pays off

Astros infield instructor Bobby Meacham said Lowrie is especially proficient at keeping his eye level close to the ground, which helps in reading hops. Lowrie also has refined the art of catching the ball in front of the body, which reduces the head movement and cuts down on misplays.

“He does it consistently every day, in practice and the games,” Meacham said. “His practice just kind of flows over to his game. He’s done everything he needs to do to prepare (beforehand), so he just goes out there and plays.”

Overcomes slow start

Lowrie prepared methodically when he was batting .229 with one extra-base hit in his first 35 at-bats as an Astro. He has prepared just as methodically in the 15 games since, batting .345, belting four home runs and slugging .603 in 58 at-bats.

“I’ve always had the mindset that you prepare, and the results will come,” Lowrie said. “With the length of the season, all you can do is prepare for the games and be ready to go, and the results will be there. You have to trust that.”

While Lowrie’s at it, he’ll just have to trust that all his preparation will eventually keep him out of harm’s way.

“I would be wasting my time if I put much thought into that, because it’s out of my control,” Lowrie said. “If I get hurt because I’m not in shape, it’s my fault. But if I’m playing the game the right way and I get hurt — a guy slides into me, or I get in a collision — that’s part of the game. I can’t control everything.”

steve.campbell@chron.com
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On the short list
The Astros’ Jed Lowrie ranks among the top five major league shortstops in on-base percentage and slugging. By the measure of FanGraphs, Lowrie’s all-around contributions rank him as the 18th most valuable player in the major leagues (11th in the National League). Here’s how Lowrie’s performance so far compares with the top shortstops in the majors:

Rafael Furcal, Cardinals
Avg. HRs RBIs OBP Slug. RAR WAR
.361 | 2 | 15 | .433 | .508 | 18.9 | 2.0
Comment: At 34, he doesn’t have the range he once did, but he leads NL in hits (40) and is second in times on base (58) and fourth in runs (23).